.
.
Here's a little piece we did a while back for the Dallas Mavericks. It has Santa in it. Other than that, really no reason to be posting it.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
T
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Mavs Save Christmas
.
.
.
Here's a little piece we did a while back for the Dallas Mavericks. It has Santa in it. Other than that, really no reason to be posting it.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
T
.
.
Here's a little piece we did a while back for the Dallas Mavericks. It has Santa in it. Other than that, really no reason to be posting it.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
T
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Inspector McCloud in espanol, senor!
.
.
.
Currently in the process of mixing the Spanish Language voice track for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures. Here is a taste of scene 11, where McCloud brings in some celebrity muscle to sway the crowd.
Enjoy it while you can... as you can see, there's an outside chance that someone will cry copyright infringement (even though it is clearly a parody!).
T
.
.
Currently in the process of mixing the Spanish Language voice track for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures. Here is a taste of scene 11, where McCloud brings in some celebrity muscle to sway the crowd.
T
Monday, November 2, 2009
More BetterKidsTV Character updates
.
.
.
More to come on that, BTW...
T
.
.
This fella is Jake - a beach bum yes, but don't let looks deceive you. Jake runs the most successful business in Atlantic Beach.
He's also got a pretty sweet pad, fully loaded with the latest in entertainment and desktop technology.
More to come on that, BTW...
T
Friday, October 30, 2009
Bellisima!
.
.
.
Updates of one of the characters we're developing for the BetterKidsTV project.
Though we're still in the script development stage, we're close enough to start finalizing the designs on most of our characters, so these assets are not only designed, but prepped for animation!
She's a cute kid, and I think she'll be a fun character once voiced and animated.
T
.
.
Updates of one of the characters we're developing for the BetterKidsTV project.
Though we're still in the script development stage, we're close enough to start finalizing the designs on most of our characters, so these assets are not only designed, but prepped for animation!
She's a cute kid, and I think she'll be a fun character once voiced and animated.
T
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Stainboy in HD
.
.
.
Flinch Studio just finished remastering the Stainboy series we created for Tim Burton back in 2000 and 2001 for a Museum of Modern Art exhibit honoring the director's work.
Because this series was created entirely with Flash vector art, it is Resolution Independent, so none of the design assets had to be recreated at higher resolutions... but we faced huge challenges and spent a great deal of time converting the compositions from their original 4:3 screen ratio to 16:9 for HD.
The first challenge was updating these assets to the latest versions of Flash. For some reason, many of these old Flash 3 & 4 files were opening up and we simply weren't seeing the animation as we created it... heads, eyes and arms were just not there anymore. The original SWFs we output in 2001 still look okay, but the newly-reopened FLAs and their subsequent outputs were a monstrosity. This strange compatibility contradiction occurred somewhere between Flash 4 and 7... so we've been looking at it and scratching our heads for years.
To fix the issue, we would have to drill down into every single problem symbol to simply reveal each element - pupils, fingers, etc... and then it would show up on the stage, like "look Flash! See? there it is"... "oh yes, thanks, I got it." This was the case for dozens of deeply nested symbols in each file.
So you save as a new file... but the next time you open it - poof! All the changes were gone! So it was fix fix fix, output, pray. We had to figure out how to make our fixes more permanent for these files, so we could make changes after post if necessary.
Part of the problem may have been the odd way we chose to execute the animation. Because of limited bandwidth back in "those days" our file sizes had to be ridiculously small - we're talking under 1MB or no approvals from Shockwave, who hosted the movies. So every 40 or 50 K we could shave off mattered... hence, we kicked into R&D mode.
We did a fair amount of R&D in 2000 while working with Shockwave on this gig, including finding a practical way to portray Burton's watercolor stain FX with vectors. Shockwave had a team of coders working on it (this was a very prestigious project for them), and we figured out a solution in 2 days using the tools at hand.
We also discovered that executing the animation segments as movie clips and controlling their frame designations with commands would save us hundreds of KB (rather than using animated graphics clips), so entire files were rebuilt that way like some kind of animation/code hybrid. We were outputting SWFs, so the final product looked fine... but trying to decipher the animation in the FLA (or any non SWF output) was pointless. So for this project, we had to reconvert the movies entirely back to a linear playback so they would output into post-production-friendly frame sequences correctly.
And of course, there were the stains. All of the animated stains were created using multi-layered shape tweens of raw gradients of varying transparencies. They worked fine when we originally created them, but... well, shape tweens are finicky enough, but 8-year old shape tweens from 5 releases ago are nothing short of a nightmare. Much time went into repairing the tweens and making those stains work again. Permanently!
Finally, there was the challenge of Post Production, including our first foray into Blu Ray DVD production & authoring. After much learning & testing (our biggest problem turned out to be audio synch), we had a product that looked and sounded amazing on a Blu Ray / HD screen setup. It even looks pretty good on YouTube!
It was kind of amazing seeing Stainboy at this size, this resolution.... like we've never seen it before. It's not often I get the chance to be thankful I chose Flash as my medium of choice - this was definitely one of those times!
I hope you enjoy these shorts equal to or greater than the amount of hair we pulled out bringing them to HD!
T
.
.
Flinch Studio just finished remastering the Stainboy series we created for Tim Burton back in 2000 and 2001 for a Museum of Modern Art exhibit honoring the director's work.
Because this series was created entirely with Flash vector art, it is Resolution Independent, so none of the design assets had to be recreated at higher resolutions... but we faced huge challenges and spent a great deal of time converting the compositions from their original 4:3 screen ratio to 16:9 for HD.
Episode 1
The first challenge was updating these assets to the latest versions of Flash. For some reason, many of these old Flash 3 & 4 files were opening up and we simply weren't seeing the animation as we created it... heads, eyes and arms were just not there anymore. The original SWFs we output in 2001 still look okay, but the newly-reopened FLAs and their subsequent outputs were a monstrosity. This strange compatibility contradiction occurred somewhere between Flash 4 and 7... so we've been looking at it and scratching our heads for years.
Episode 2
To fix the issue, we would have to drill down into every single problem symbol to simply reveal each element - pupils, fingers, etc... and then it would show up on the stage, like "look Flash! See? there it is"... "oh yes, thanks, I got it." This was the case for dozens of deeply nested symbols in each file.
So you save as a new file... but the next time you open it - poof! All the changes were gone! So it was fix fix fix, output, pray. We had to figure out how to make our fixes more permanent for these files, so we could make changes after post if necessary.
Part of the problem may have been the odd way we chose to execute the animation. Because of limited bandwidth back in "those days" our file sizes had to be ridiculously small - we're talking under 1MB or no approvals from Shockwave, who hosted the movies. So every 40 or 50 K we could shave off mattered... hence, we kicked into R&D mode.
Episode 3
We did a fair amount of R&D in 2000 while working with Shockwave on this gig, including finding a practical way to portray Burton's watercolor stain FX with vectors. Shockwave had a team of coders working on it (this was a very prestigious project for them), and we figured out a solution in 2 days using the tools at hand.
We also discovered that executing the animation segments as movie clips and controlling their frame designations with commands would save us hundreds of KB (rather than using animated graphics clips), so entire files were rebuilt that way like some kind of animation/code hybrid. We were outputting SWFs, so the final product looked fine... but trying to decipher the animation in the FLA (or any non SWF output) was pointless. So for this project, we had to reconvert the movies entirely back to a linear playback so they would output into post-production-friendly frame sequences correctly.
Episode 4
And of course, there were the stains. All of the animated stains were created using multi-layered shape tweens of raw gradients of varying transparencies. They worked fine when we originally created them, but... well, shape tweens are finicky enough, but 8-year old shape tweens from 5 releases ago are nothing short of a nightmare. Much time went into repairing the tweens and making those stains work again. Permanently!
Episode 5
Finally, there was the challenge of Post Production, including our first foray into Blu Ray DVD production & authoring. After much learning & testing (our biggest problem turned out to be audio synch), we had a product that looked and sounded amazing on a Blu Ray / HD screen setup. It even looks pretty good on YouTube!
Episode 6
It was kind of amazing seeing Stainboy at this size, this resolution.... like we've never seen it before. It's not often I get the chance to be thankful I chose Flash as my medium of choice - this was definitely one of those times!
I hope you enjoy these shorts equal to or greater than the amount of hair we pulled out bringing them to HD!
T
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
If you like chasin' your tail...
.
.
.
This one bubbled to the surface many years back. Still tickles me a little bit. Sorry for the roughshod appearance - these are the raw squeezins, right out of the coconut.
Copyright 2000 Tony Grillo
Puppy Boy. Like so many superheroes before him, born of a radioactive bite. Hey, it was either that or being fused in some kind of transporter. It's really just an excuse to show dogs doing funny things... and introduce the world to this talented canine cast:
Copyright 2000 Tony Grillo
I don't know if we'd ever see any actual action... when this was conceived, it was more about the silly, mundane day-to-day life of a hero - in this case, among a city of dogs who attempt to deny their base, doggish desires - like rolling-off in the grass and butt-sniffing on a first date.
Nowadays, Adult Swim shows like like the Venture Brothers, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Family Guy cover this subject matter pretty completely. Still, I hope we get to churn out some dopey laughs with this one sometime.
T
.
.
This one bubbled to the surface many years back. Still tickles me a little bit. Sorry for the roughshod appearance - these are the raw squeezins, right out of the coconut.
Copyright 2000 Tony GrilloPuppy Boy. Like so many superheroes before him, born of a radioactive bite. Hey, it was either that or being fused in some kind of transporter. It's really just an excuse to show dogs doing funny things... and introduce the world to this talented canine cast:
Copyright 2000 Tony GrilloI don't know if we'd ever see any actual action... when this was conceived, it was more about the silly, mundane day-to-day life of a hero - in this case, among a city of dogs who attempt to deny their base, doggish desires - like rolling-off in the grass and butt-sniffing on a first date.
Nowadays, Adult Swim shows like like the Venture Brothers, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Family Guy cover this subject matter pretty completely. Still, I hope we get to churn out some dopey laughs with this one sometime.
T
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Better Kids
.
.
.
As we wrap up on the Inspector McCloud project, we're putting together a new project for Better kids TV. It's a series of videos designed to educate kids about finance in an entertaining way. The project is pretty involved, incorporating multiple media and new technologies to present a combination of animation and live action.
Here's a peek at the main characters from story that weaves through the lessons and interviews.
I'd love to tell you more about the project, but it's still early in the process, and we can't share too much info. As Willie is busy cranking out some more looks for the project, we're digging into our live-action production roots to "cast" some of the live action roles. More to come...
T
.
.
As we wrap up on the Inspector McCloud project, we're putting together a new project for Better kids TV. It's a series of videos designed to educate kids about finance in an entertaining way. The project is pretty involved, incorporating multiple media and new technologies to present a combination of animation and live action.
Here's a peek at the main characters from story that weaves through the lessons and interviews.
I'd love to tell you more about the project, but it's still early in the process, and we can't share too much info. As Willie is busy cranking out some more looks for the project, we're digging into our live-action production roots to "cast" some of the live action roles. More to come...T
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A New Song
.
.
.
I'd like to present a new song, produced by myself and Will Jenkins, the composer for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures.
This little ditty, called "The Republic of the Rio Grande", was inspired by the history behind the Texas/Mexico border towns, the culture that links all of these regions, and the need to unite in the protection of their most important natural resource.
This version of the song, which will play during the closing credits for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures, features samples from the show, and is voiced by Stephen Grillo as the character of the Narrator. There were incredible contributions from several other musicians as well, all of whom will be credited in the final piece.
The original Republic of the Rio Grande was an actual nation located in a disputed zone between Mexico and texas back in 1839. The country lasted less than 200 days, and was governed from Laredo.
To learn more about it (its actually a fascinating history) visit
The Republic of the Rio Grande Museum website and take the tour. Nice folks there!
T
.
.
I'd like to present a new song, produced by myself and Will Jenkins, the composer for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures.
This little ditty, called "The Republic of the Rio Grande", was inspired by the history behind the Texas/Mexico border towns, the culture that links all of these regions, and the need to unite in the protection of their most important natural resource.
This version of the song, which will play during the closing credits for Inspector McCloud's Stormwater Adventures, features samples from the show, and is voiced by Stephen Grillo as the character of the Narrator. There were incredible contributions from several other musicians as well, all of whom will be credited in the final piece.
The original Republic of the Rio Grande was an actual nation located in a disputed zone between Mexico and texas back in 1839. The country lasted less than 200 days, and was governed from Laredo.
To learn more about it (its actually a fascinating history) visit
The Republic of the Rio Grande Museum website and take the tour. Nice folks there!T
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 10: Music
.
.
.
Here's a little bitty taste of the score we are producing for Inspector McCloud. This piece will open the show.
Flinch music is almost always a family affair - Composer Will Jenkins, my brother in law, scores more than half of our projects, and my brother Steve steps in to co-write songs for our musical shorts. Sister Barbara often provides vocals, and of course, I fill in where needed.
This time around, we were joined by my talented brother Jerry, who provided the whistling cowboy you hear in this song. I tried to pull it off, but clearly I was not the one who inherited our Father's world renown lips. When Jerry's not blowing me away (what a delicious pun!) he's a senior editor for Georgia Trend magazine and a funny playwright.
Thanks to all my musical kin and the others talented musicians who have jumped into the mix - stay tooned for more hot numbers!
T
.
.
Here's a little bitty taste of the score we are producing for Inspector McCloud. This piece will open the show.
Flinch music is almost always a family affair - Composer Will Jenkins, my brother in law, scores more than half of our projects, and my brother Steve steps in to co-write songs for our musical shorts. Sister Barbara often provides vocals, and of course, I fill in where needed.
This time around, we were joined by my talented brother Jerry, who provided the whistling cowboy you hear in this song. I tried to pull it off, but clearly I was not the one who inherited our Father's world renown lips. When Jerry's not blowing me away (what a delicious pun!) he's a senior editor for Georgia Trend magazine and a funny playwright.
Thanks to all my musical kin and the others talented musicians who have jumped into the mix - stay tooned for more hot numbers!
T
Friday, June 5, 2009
Another Flinch Monstrosity
.
.
.
Meet inspector McCloud. No, I mean... Meet Inspector McCloud! He's actually out there, walking the streets of Laredo. Probably scaring the crap out of little kids!
These pix were sent to me by my friends over at the City of Laredo... they work fast. I'm not even finished with the dang cartoon, and they already have a costumed supermascot ready to thrill his future fans with tales of storm water adventure.
I don't know about you, but I was always terrified of man-sized manifestations of cute cartoon characters. Strolling the idyllic lanes of Disney World, I always made sure to circumvent the giant Mickey and his unsettling incorrect proportions.
Truth be told, it is absolutely a pleasure to see your drawings turned into living towers of felt & pleather. Just the idea that some costume designer spent hours ogling my artwork is thrilling in itself... but when you see pictures of little kids hugging them, it just plain awesome, damn it, and I don't care if I'm obviously lame and easy to please.
It's not the first time one of our creations has made the jump from 2D to a strip mall near you. You may remember Otto, our Irvine Auto Center mascot.
Clearly, not every kid shares my fear of cartoon characters come to life and towering over them. Good for you, cast of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants... good for you.
Robin Williams knows what I'm talking about...
To quote the Mork: (regarding a trip to Disneyland): "Mickey Mouse to a 3-year-old is a six-foot f***ing rat!"
(sorry for the censorship, it's a Family Blog).
T
.
.
Meet inspector McCloud. No, I mean... Meet Inspector McCloud! He's actually out there, walking the streets of Laredo. Probably scaring the crap out of little kids!
These pix were sent to me by my friends over at the City of Laredo... they work fast. I'm not even finished with the dang cartoon, and they already have a costumed supermascot ready to thrill his future fans with tales of storm water adventure.
I don't know about you, but I was always terrified of man-sized manifestations of cute cartoon characters. Strolling the idyllic lanes of Disney World, I always made sure to circumvent the giant Mickey and his unsettling incorrect proportions.
Truth be told, it is absolutely a pleasure to see your drawings turned into living towers of felt & pleather. Just the idea that some costume designer spent hours ogling my artwork is thrilling in itself... but when you see pictures of little kids hugging them, it just plain awesome, damn it, and I don't care if I'm obviously lame and easy to please.
It's not the first time one of our creations has made the jump from 2D to a strip mall near you. You may remember Otto, our Irvine Auto Center mascot.
Clearly, not every kid shares my fear of cartoon characters come to life and towering over them. Good for you, cast of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants... good for you.
Robin Williams knows what I'm talking about...
To quote the Mork: (regarding a trip to Disneyland): "Mickey Mouse to a 3-year-old is a six-foot f***ing rat!"
(sorry for the censorship, it's a Family Blog).
T
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 10: Wreaking Havoc
.
.
.
Another exciting moment from Inspector McCloud - the Pollution Cartel drowns Laredo in a sea of garbage.
T
.
.
Another exciting moment from Inspector McCloud - the Pollution Cartel drowns Laredo in a sea of garbage.
T
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 9: Going into Battle!
.
.
.
On their way into battle, our heroes get a little distracted.
T
.
.
On their way into battle, our heroes get a little distracted.
T
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 8: Action in the Park
.
.
.
Wrapped this scene last week. Things get messy at City Park... where's Inspector McCloud??
Takes a while to load... patience....
T
.
.
Wrapped this scene last week. Things get messy at City Park... where's Inspector McCloud??
Takes a while to load... patience....
T
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Another Game for Psyclops
.
.
.
This is another game we did for Psyclops.com. This one's a little easier to get the hang of!
Have fun!
T
.
.
This is another game we did for Psyclops.com. This one's a little easier to get the hang of!
Have fun!
T
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 7: A little piece of animation
.
.
.
Here's another peek at sequence 2 - no music, but completed animation.
Not really prepared for internet delivery - give it a minute to start playing!
Animation is taking a gruelingly long time. I may starve to death before I complete this dang thing. But it's gettin' done!
T
.
.
Here's another peek at sequence 2 - no music, but completed animation.
Not really prepared for internet delivery - give it a minute to start playing!
Animation is taking a gruelingly long time. I may starve to death before I complete this dang thing. But it's gettin' done!
T
Friday, April 24, 2009
A new game from Flinch
.
.
.
Check out this new game we created for the Psyclops site.
It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it... but it gets fun really quick!
T
.
.
Check out this new game we created for the Psyclops site.
It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it... but it gets fun really quick!
T
Monday, April 6, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Inside the mind of a 6-year old filmmaker
.
.
.
In between the long hours of running this company (into the ground), coaching T Ball, being a reasonably attentive husband and coercing Flash to give me adequate results, I somehow manage to selflessly donate time to helping kids fulfill their dreams - provided they are related to me and do what I say at least 85% of the time. And have small dreams.
So one day, my 6-year old (who, by the way, has never seen Mad Max) shows up with this drawing of a most heinous bullet car, and says he wants to turn it into an animation. After trying unsuccessfully to convince him that I didn't know where to find any animation equipment, I relented and let him have full access to my Cintiq (which I haven't even started paying off yet, for you cynics who doubt the depth of my fatherly love).
This was the result:
While I helped him with the technical aspects of animation, this film is all Charlie. Every little detail, down to the blood-soaked spikes in the road, came from him. This chaotic, violent masterpiece is his Directorial debut... a Dad couldn't be more proud.
And, he's starting to get pretty comfortable with Flash too. Perhaps I have found some cheap labor to exploit?
T
.
.
In between the long hours of running this company (into the ground), coaching T Ball, being a reasonably attentive husband and coercing Flash to give me adequate results, I somehow manage to selflessly donate time to helping kids fulfill their dreams - provided they are related to me and do what I say at least 85% of the time. And have small dreams.
So one day, my 6-year old (who, by the way, has never seen Mad Max) shows up with this drawing of a most heinous bullet car, and says he wants to turn it into an animation. After trying unsuccessfully to convince him that I didn't know where to find any animation equipment, I relented and let him have full access to my Cintiq (which I haven't even started paying off yet, for you cynics who doubt the depth of my fatherly love).
This was the result:
While I helped him with the technical aspects of animation, this film is all Charlie. Every little detail, down to the blood-soaked spikes in the road, came from him. This chaotic, violent masterpiece is his Directorial debut... a Dad couldn't be more proud.
And, he's starting to get pretty comfortable with Flash too. Perhaps I have found some cheap labor to exploit?
T
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 6: Uhhh... more Color Animatic
.
.
.
So, here's another piece from the Inspector McCloud Color Animatic / Rough Cut.
In these scenes, we see the Pollution Cartel taking over the city park while Stormy & McCloud get to know each other. Still working with very little animation and temp music (Thank you Juan Garcia Esquivel and John Barry).
Probably going to need a "meanwhile.. " or two.
Have fun!
T
.
.
So, here's another piece from the Inspector McCloud Color Animatic / Rough Cut.
In these scenes, we see the Pollution Cartel taking over the city park while Stormy & McCloud get to know each other. Still working with very little animation and temp music (Thank you Juan Garcia Esquivel and John Barry).
Probably going to need a "meanwhile.. " or two.
Have fun!
T
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 5: Color Animatic
.
.
.
3 weeks, no new postings. I'll try to make up for that here.
We have completed the Color Animatic / Rough Cut of Inspector McCloud, and are ready to share a little!
There is very little animation at this point, and the music is all temporary, to give a taste of the direction we're hoping to take it (thank you Ennio Morricone).
Have a peek at this scene, which takes place early in the show:
Obviously, there is a lot more work to do... we have another pass at animation, as well as a mountain of post production - but we're proud of this little bit.
I hope you enjoy!
T
.
.
3 weeks, no new postings. I'll try to make up for that here.
We have completed the Color Animatic / Rough Cut of Inspector McCloud, and are ready to share a little!
There is very little animation at this point, and the music is all temporary, to give a taste of the direction we're hoping to take it (thank you Ennio Morricone).
Have a peek at this scene, which takes place early in the show:
Obviously, there is a lot more work to do... we have another pass at animation, as well as a mountain of post production - but we're proud of this little bit.
I hope you enjoy!
T
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Superjail
.
.
.
How the hell did they do it?
How did Christy Karacas and his band of psychos get Superjail on the air? It's sick and subversive, sloppy and disjointed... and completely deranged. And brilliant. This thing is the closest thing to art Adult Swim has ever aired.
I can't get enough of this damn show. And it's not fair, dammit. After many long, long years trying to clean up my designs and streamline my production pipelines, trying to simplify my layouts so I can tell my story quickly and efficiently, trying to keep my characters on model and establish rules for style, these guys turn it all backwards and upside down.
It's the only show on Adult Swim - hell, on most of TV - that's still drawn FRAME BY FRAME! I don't even have the balls to try that! And we're not talking about simple artwork here - look at this:
Frame by frame, bitch.
It's like the 70s all over again... not the bad, stiff Hanna Barbera Saturday Morning 70s, but the trippy Ralph Bakshi, anything goes 70s. It's Yellow Subrarine on acid - a lot of Acid. It's Schoolhouse Rock for the criminally insane.
The characters, like liquid, seem to evolve from shot to shot - the result of a truly fluid and organic animation process - but it only adds to the show. In that way, it shares much with Ren & Stimpy. And the gags - my god. Lots of people die horrible bloody deaths, but it's okay apparently, because they're murderous criminals.
I challenge you to watch this show and find a main character without serious personality flaws (sadism, narcissism, emotional detachment, submissive self loathing - all to the point of turning your stomach) - and yet, I'm fully engaged. Adult Swim, Augenblick Studios, their sponsors - all took a huge chance on this one and it is paying off. Fans are clamoring for Season 2 and, at the rate it must take to produce each show, there will be a bit of a wait. But I expect the process will be as painstaking as season 1.
I don't know what makes this show so damn addictive, but I can say this with certainty: the guys who produce Superjail love to animate.
More - cause you gotta love it.
If you haven't bothered yet, give it a go.
T
.
.
How the hell did they do it?
How did Christy Karacas and his band of psychos get Superjail on the air? It's sick and subversive, sloppy and disjointed... and completely deranged. And brilliant. This thing is the closest thing to art Adult Swim has ever aired.
I can't get enough of this damn show. And it's not fair, dammit. After many long, long years trying to clean up my designs and streamline my production pipelines, trying to simplify my layouts so I can tell my story quickly and efficiently, trying to keep my characters on model and establish rules for style, these guys turn it all backwards and upside down.
It's the only show on Adult Swim - hell, on most of TV - that's still drawn FRAME BY FRAME! I don't even have the balls to try that! And we're not talking about simple artwork here - look at this:
Frame by frame, bitch.
It's like the 70s all over again... not the bad, stiff Hanna Barbera Saturday Morning 70s, but the trippy Ralph Bakshi, anything goes 70s. It's Yellow Subrarine on acid - a lot of Acid. It's Schoolhouse Rock for the criminally insane.
The characters, like liquid, seem to evolve from shot to shot - the result of a truly fluid and organic animation process - but it only adds to the show. In that way, it shares much with Ren & Stimpy. And the gags - my god. Lots of people die horrible bloody deaths, but it's okay apparently, because they're murderous criminals.
Every episode ends with a full-scale battle resulting in mass carnage. The plot that takes us there is almost irrelevant by the time we arrive, because the pure visceral thrill of the carefully (or carelessly) storyboarded action overshadows the whole experience. Even a sudden orgy provides more gore than a Freddy Kruger movie.
I challenge you to watch this show and find a main character without serious personality flaws (sadism, narcissism, emotional detachment, submissive self loathing - all to the point of turning your stomach) - and yet, I'm fully engaged. Adult Swim, Augenblick Studios, their sponsors - all took a huge chance on this one and it is paying off. Fans are clamoring for Season 2 and, at the rate it must take to produce each show, there will be a bit of a wait. But I expect the process will be as painstaking as season 1.
I don't know what makes this show so damn addictive, but I can say this with certainty: the guys who produce Superjail love to animate.
More - cause you gotta love it.
If you haven't bothered yet, give it a go.
T
Monday, March 2, 2009
Inspector McCloud Part 4: Design
.
.
.
Not Much to say about the design for Inspector McCloud - it's been a long time since I was sitting in the designer's seat, at least to this extent. For the first time in... God know how long, I have taken on the roll of designing every last facet of a major project, from Characters & BGs to Props and FX. Even the title sequences will be me, I expect.
The villains prepare for a picnic.
It took a long time to dust off the illustration chops and get back to where I could build these things from scratch. It also took a lot of going back to the cartoons I love and analyzing why I love it. Although I love watching cartoons... that still counts as work.
Doin' Time
I've also had the good fortune of working closely with designers like Willie Castro, Gene Fowler, Peter Parpan and Brian Chin, all of whom had an influence on this style.
Sandy, making a guest appearance, develops a crush on Matthew McConaughey
McCloud takes his air quotes for a test flight.
ESD Headquarters
One of the hardest things to wrap my brain around was (and is) color. Making color choices is one of the most painful processes for me - like deciding which T-shirt to put on in the morning. Once I was able to break from the idea of Sky=Blue, Tree=Green, I was able to make some progress. I am by no means "free", but it's a lot easier to get moving now.
Mmmm... cake.
Some of the locals line up to take shots at Agent Public.
The climactic battle begins!
Much room for improvement... but I'm having fun, and learning how to draw again!
T
.
.
Not Much to say about the design for Inspector McCloud - it's been a long time since I was sitting in the designer's seat, at least to this extent. For the first time in... God know how long, I have taken on the roll of designing every last facet of a major project, from Characters & BGs to Props and FX. Even the title sequences will be me, I expect.
The villains prepare for a picnic.It took a long time to dust off the illustration chops and get back to where I could build these things from scratch. It also took a lot of going back to the cartoons I love and analyzing why I love it. Although I love watching cartoons... that still counts as work.
Doin' TimeI've also had the good fortune of working closely with designers like Willie Castro, Gene Fowler, Peter Parpan and Brian Chin, all of whom had an influence on this style.
Sandy, making a guest appearance, develops a crush on Matthew McConaughey
McCloud takes his air quotes for a test flight.
ESD HeadquartersOne of the hardest things to wrap my brain around was (and is) color. Making color choices is one of the most painful processes for me - like deciding which T-shirt to put on in the morning. Once I was able to break from the idea of Sky=Blue, Tree=Green, I was able to make some progress. I am by no means "free", but it's a lot easier to get moving now.
Mmmm... cake.
Some of the locals line up to take shots at Agent Public.
The climactic battle begins!Much room for improvement... but I'm having fun, and learning how to draw again!
T
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)